SMUGGLER'S CAVE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 303, 17 August 1932, Page 3

SMUGGLER'S CAVE

THE AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS PROVE PRESENT-DAY EXISTENCE. SEARCHING CHINESE VESSELS. Although smugglers' caves are but a romantic memory (says the Melbourne Argus) the work of Customs officers supplies constant proof that tbe gentle art of smuggling is by no means dead. Altered conditions require altered methods. The modern opium smuggler employs ingenious trlckery to outwit the law. The prosecution of a Chinese sailor in the steamer Changte in Sydney recently gave some insight into modern methods. After having searched the vessel from stem to stsrn the officials came upon a nest of 20 tins neatly stowed at the bottom of a barrel of eggs. The Chinese sailor is now in prison. The most elaborate and ingenious pr-ecautions are taken by smugglers of opium and jewellery. Armed with a variety of implements, Customs officers turn each Chinese vessel inside out, searching for the little paclcages in false piston rods, in the seams of the deck, in old clothes, and in every conceivable nook and cranny. A large haul of opium which was found hy a fisherman floating in the hay last August was dropped from a Chinese steamer, the Taiping, which had heen thoroughly searched by Customs officers twice before reaching Melbourne. Some time ago a wary Customs officer noticed some Chinese sailors tossing dead rats on to the wharf. He opened them and discovered a package of opium cunningly concealed within each. A story is also told of a ship's cook, who availed himself of his privilege of carrying off all fat collected on the voyage and sank tins of opium in it before it had set. In d ealing with the amatehr smuggler, however, the Customs Officer's task is easier. "Anything to declare?" he asks. "What about the silk pyjamas you are wearing underneath your shirt?" The old trick of winding contraband silk round the body is well known to the Customs officer; but he has to rely on catching a random victim, and hoping that it will deter others. Officials keep a watch on friends going aboard incoming steamers as well as those leaving. They often notice that a gentleman who went aboard without hat or coat strolls off absent-mindedly with an expensive new felt and a heavy topcoat. Recently a dignified and aristocratic old gentleman walksd slowly ashore from a passenger liner and an■nounced that he had nothing to declare, although his stick and cigarette case were worth a few pounds. Unfortunately the imposing spectacle was marred by the tip of a silk stocking protruding from beneath his trousers. The smuggler is yet far from being a romantic memory.